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The following dialogue was triggered by the this
statement:
"I am fighting for my unborn
twin brother's right to life!"
Randolfe Wicker
Founder
Clone Rights United Front
Posted by Nicole
Laruccio on March 01, 1999 at 11:34:54:
In Reply to: Fighting
for my twin brother’s right to life.
By Randy Wicker on February 27, 1999 at 18:52:14:
Body
of Message:
You are
fighting for your twin brother's right to life. What makes him a twin? The
fact that it would have the same DNA structure like yours? Wouldn’t this
child be more of a son rather than a brother because your mother isn’t
having the child, RIGHT?
But why would
you have a twin of yourself? Are you the sample of what a true human being
is? Are you a perfect being do you have the quality it takes to have
another one of you on this earth?
I mean it is
nice to love whom you are but doesn’t it become insane when you start
defending the rights of your mental arrogant altered ego?
I don’t know
who you are or what you are ... but you don’t have a real reason to have
a child. Are you married? Did you ever have a problem conceiving a child?
Do you have a small sperm count? Is your penis that old? Small? Or are you
just insane.
I give credit
to married couples that can’t have children. But you have no excuses.
Anyway by what I read last week you're GAY, if you wanted a child you
should of had the children or child when you were younger. I hope this
doesn’t offend you but I am trying just to be as honest as I could be.
Mr. Wicker’s Reply is as
follows:
Name:
Randy Wicker E-Mail:
Subject:
Re: Fighting for my twin
brother’s right to life.
Body
of Message:
I never mind a thoughtful, even
overly emotional, response.
There is no
doubt that a child conceived through injecting one of my cells into a
denucleated egg would, in fact, be a later born twin of myself. That
doesn’t mean that he would be "just" like me. He would simply
have the same genetic inheritance. He might be quite different in
personality, even in sexual orientation, but if you take the time to learn
about twins, they usually have a unique special "understanding"
of each other.
Many people
would agree with you that a later born twin is more like a son or daughter
of an adult. But, in fact, he or she would be a sibling genetically--even
while possibly being a son or daughter in a social or family sense.
Funny
that you would say "your mother isn't having the child, RIGHT?"
While it may be a hard concept to handle, the reality is that if I were
cloned, my mother and my father WOULD be the genetic parents of my later
born twin brother.
Next
you ask, "Why would you have a twin of yourself?” Just a few hours
ago, a 38-year-old woman called from California. She very much wanted to
have a child, felt her biological clock was running out. She was single
and wanted to have a child WITHOUT involving the genes of a stranger.
Many
People will tell you that she could go to a sperm bank and select a father
for her desired child from a gallery of portraits that supposedly give not
only photographs but personality profiles, intelligence scores, likes in
music and literature, etc.
An interviewer
from a Japanese news service asked me exactly that question a couple weeks
ago. I turned the equation on its head by suggesting that if I saw a
picture of him and read various descriptions--intelligent, healthy,
verbally gifted, etc.--I might think he was just about perfect. Then I
asked if he even knew the names of either of his great grandfathers or
great grandmothers, if it was possible that they or their siblings might
have been mentally retarded and/or, afflicted with some hereditary disease
like lupus, etc.?
I'll ask you
the same question in order to make the point that we really don’t know
enough about our own genetic inheritance yet, or that of others, to
undertake a lifetime project of raising a child half of whose genes come
from a "stranger”.
Next,
you say, rather articulately I must admit "I mean it's nice to love
who you are but doesn’t it become insane when you start defending the
rights of your mental arrogant ego?" Now there is a poignant attack.
It’s
not my “Mentally arrogant ego” which will receive the gift of life
when I am cloned (and rest assured I WILL be) it will be my later born
twin. If I suffer from a “mentally arrogant ego” fortunately it would
die with me. He would have a totally different and unique ego, all his
own! "I don’t know who you are or what you are ... but you don’t
have a real reason to have a child."
My desire
and right to have children is the same as anyone else's. When I was young,
I fell in love with the movie "Cheaper By The Dozen" starring
Clifton Webb. I wanted to have a dozen kids just like he had in the movie.
Things just didn’t turn out that way.
And
for that matter, I wouldn’t be "having" the child; a surrogate
mother would be necessary for that chore.
For all your
obvious intelligence, I thought those emotionally negative queries, “Are
you married? Did you ever
have a problem conceiving a child? Do you have a small sperm count? Is
your penis that old? Small? Or are you just insane?" were just a bit
much.
The answer to
the first five questions above is no. But what answer does the last
question, "or are you just insane?" deserve? If I'm
"insane" do you think I could write as rationally as I do? You
seem to be the one who feels threatened, who's being driven
"insane" by my postings here.
"I give
credit to married couples who can't have children," you continue. So
do I! I want to help them have children genetically related to them
through safe, reasonably priced, widely available cloning technology.
However,
I also want to allow those who want children as single parents--like the
woman who called from California or single males, heterosexual or
homosexual, with strong parenting urges who haven't been able to find a
mate--to have the children they desire without becoming involved with the
genes of a stranger.
"But
you have no excuses," you charge. "Anyway by what I read last
week you're GAY." What strikes me is why did you capitalize the word
"gay"? What would you think if I said that from what I read of
your name, I think you're a FEMALE! You also might be a mixture of FRENCH
and ITALIAN parents!
But
since we're dealing with such subjects, I'll give you a brief
self-description: "I'm a 61-year, old gay widower, perfectly healthy
like my 83-year-old mother."
"If
you wanted a child you should of had the children or child when you were
younger, you note. Quite true! Score one for you! When I told my mother I
wanted to see a later born twin conceived through cloning, her immediate
response was: "You're too old to start changing diapers!"
At
this point, I feel it would be unfair to my later born twin if I were to
assume the role of single parent. I would see he was adopted by an
understanding open-minded straight couple who would be comfortable with
him as an adopted gay or straight son.
At
most, there would only be a 50% chance that he would be gay. For reasons
I'd rather not go into now, I am virtually certain that he would, in fact,
be heterosexual.
Believe
it or not, I really don't harbor any strong preferences in that regard. It
would be fascinating watching my later born twin grow up in the fashion of
his own choosing.
I would like
to be part of his life, like that of a special "uncle" who would
have a unique understanding of his life.
The real
parenting would be left up to the adoptive couple. I would provide
financial support to see he got the best schooling and would hope to be a
special person in his life.
"I
hope this doesn't offend you but I am trying just to be as honest as I
could be," you conclude. No, you didn't offend me. You challenged me
"to be as honest as I could be." It was a pleasure discussing
this with you.
Ms. Laruccio answered Mr.
Wicker's response as follows:
Added
on Date: 21:44:39 3/01/99
Posted by Nicole
Laruccio on March 01, 1999 at 11:34:54:
In
Reply to: Fighting for my twin brother’s right to life.
Body
of Message:
Mr. Wicker:
THANK YOU! I
really appreciate you giving me your time in responding.
I need to know, if
you would, is there any health issues? For example would a clone be more
susceptible to disease or deformed at birth? Aside from the moral things
that everyone is stuck on, what are the real facts?
Are there any
reasons why a person shouldn’t be cloned? Aside from people just
thinking that it is wrong, is there really any reason, medically, not to
clone?
How many different
animals have been cloned? Are there really more that the public knows?
Personally, I think
that there have been so many cloned animals that scientists already know
that it is possible for a human to be completely cloned.
I also have heard
that there has been a successful cloning of a human up to so many weeks.
Why didn’t it last?
Were they
going to put the egg into a surrogate mother, or just study it? If it were
put into a surrogate mother, would it have survived until birth with no
defects?
I originally
started this with a report for school, but now I am becoming truly
interested in what I have learned on the subject. Again, thank you for
taking time out of your busy schedule to help me. I appreciate it
greatly!!!
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